This article is written by Arunkumar Deshmukh, a fellow enthusiast of Hindi movie music and a contributor to this blog.This article is meant to be posted in atulsongaday.me. If this article appears in other sites without the knowledge and consent of the web administrator of atulsongaday.me, then it is piracy of the copyright content of atulsongaday.me and is a punishable offence under the existing laws.

Blog Day :

3831

Post No. :

14839

Today’s song is from a film Jagriti-1949. This film was made by Veerendra Chitra. The director was Manohar Ghatwai. Music was by K. Narayan Rao and the Lyricist was Indeevar. The cast of the film was Ravikant, Mohana Cabral, Omkar Devaskar, Lalita Rao, Leela, Jal khambata, chemist etc etc.

From the list of 7000 odd actors who worked in Hindi films, during the period 1931 to 2000, if you divide them into grade A, B and C class artistes, you will find that about 350 (5%) actors may come in A grade-i.e. Hero/Heroines- about 1000 (15%) may come in B grade- support actors/ character artistes- and the balalnce 5600 (80%) may fall in C grade- smaller roles. It is true that not all those who join films will shine but the small time actors, who thronged the film cities like Bombay had their own dreams.Most had their dreams shattered and they had to settle for whatever was served to them.

The Mayanagari, sometimes showed its Maya. It picked up unsuspecting souls and bestowed upon them the fame and a name as Leading actors, singers, Directors ,Lyricists or whatever in films. Thus, a scholarly young man, standing in a bus queue in Madras is picked up and made a Hero of more than 40 films as ” Ranjan”. It also made an onlooker of shooting from the crowds of a studio, the famous and rich Hero of more than 50 films as ” Motilal”. An ordinary Motor Mechanic becomes a well known film Director in various languages and is called ” Sarvottam Badami’. A poor motor mechanic working is a garage becomes All India famous poet-Lyricist and Producer Director called ” Gulzar.” The same Maya made a casual singer in Hindu Colony,Dadar in Bombay a famous playback singer of repute, when her singing is heard by a passing Music Director Hanuman prasad, just by chance. She was known as ” Geeta Dutt”. There are many such examples.

There are many such number of ” Accidental Stars’, but the same Maya also scuttled the Golden chances of capable aspiring small timers to become big stars. Atleast two glaring examples are known. one is very well known to many, but the other is hardly known to anyone. Mehboob Khan was almost selected as Hero of India’s First Talkie film ” Aalam Ara”-31. Even suitable costumes for him were also made ready, but then Maya played the trick and his name was pushed back, in favour of the more famous Master Vithal, to cover up the possible risk of the failure of the First talkie, which was an experiment. Nevertheless Mehboob Khan became a significantly notable producer, director and studio owner of India.

The other case how Maya scuttled the chances of fame, name and career of a small time actor who was on the verge of becoming a big star, is not known to most people. Now, take a look at the cast of today’s film ‘ Jagriti’-49, as mentioned above, in the first paragraph of this post. Do you find a name Omkar Devaskar ? Well, this is his story….

Omkar Devaskar was born in 1911 in MP (Central provinces then). After his schooling, he ran away to Bombay to seek employment and got a job as an ‘ Assistant’ in Imperial Film company. His job was to do any work given to him. The salary was Rs.20 pm. When he saw the film shootings, he had an urge to act in films. One day, he asked Ardeshir sheth about it and he started getting uncredited small roles in silent films.

Imperial company decided to make a Talkie First time in India,mainly because of Dadasaheb Torne (Ramchandra Gopal Torne). It was he who prompted Irani to be the first in India to make a Talkie. Torne was his Manager for both Jyoti studio and Imperial Film Company. Torne was also an agent for Cinema Equipment imported from England and Germany. Torne imported Sound recording equipment and the company sent a German Engineer to explain and teach the technique to Indian technicians.

They first wanted to test the sound recording machine by recording and filming a song. Who would sing ? No one was ready to become the sacrificial goat. Irani saw Omkar and asked him to sing before the machine. A terrified Omkar lamely protested, but he had no choice. Ultimately he was ‘ made up’ and the recording and filming started. Omkar sang a Thumri, ‘ Pyare Rasia Bihari’. Everybody present, including Irani, were stunned with the sweet voice and the ease of his singing style. It came off extremely well. About 500 feet film was shot flawlessly. Irani was so much impressed, that he toyed with the idea of giving Omkar the first song in film Aalam Ara. Maya swiftly went to into action. Unfortunately the recording was not saved, otherwise it would have been the first film song to be filmed and Omkar the First ever singer actor to do so. But Alas ! This is called the stroke of misfortune ! Destiny had slated this honour for W.M.Khan.

Missing this chance, anyway, Omkar became an actor and singer. His first talkie film was Imperial’s ” Sati Anusuya “-33. He a sang 3 songs in film ” Noor E Imaan “-33, besides acting in it. Omkar acted in about 30 films in all. His last film was perhaps, Rangeeli-52. He sang 14 songs in 6 films. His last song came in today’s film Jagriti-49. Omkar was a regular actor in many Marathi films too.

Today’s song is sung by Freni Shroff and Yeshwant Bhatt. No information whatsoever is found about this singer Freni. A cursory look at HFGK indicates that possibly she sang only in this film.

YASHWANT BHATT was son of shri Nageshwar Bhatt. He was born at Madhavpur in Gujarat. Since his father was a singer of Haveli Sangeet, Yashwant started singing quite early. His first guru was Kashigar and later on it was Padubhai who actually developed Yashwant as a singer. He always gave credit to his guru Padubhai. Yashwant’s voice was very soft and sweet. It was ideal for singing emotional songs and Bhajans. He was an extremely good natured and helpful person. Soon his name became known for his sweet Bhajans.

He was ambitious to become a Play back singer in Hindi films. He came to Bombay at the age of 20 years. First he got opportunity to sing in chorus in the Circo production film songs. In 1941,he sang Bhajans on Mumbai Radio. Side by side he sang in Hindi films. In all he sang about 25 songs in 13 Hindi films. The films were Khooni Laash-43, Katil-44, Black and white-44, Royal Mail-46, Dhokhebaaz-46, Namak-47, Kismetwali-47, White face-48, Billi-49, Jiyo Raja-49, Jagriti-49, Veer Ghatotkach-49 and Actor -51.

Out of these 13 films, 9 films had music by K. Narayan Rao. Yashwant was his pet singer. Narayan Rao was mainly a composer for C grade and stunt films. His films never became famous, consequently Yashwant too was neglected and never came into limelight. Actually, with other composers, Yashwant had done duets with Naseem, Uma Devi, Sulochana Kadam, Kusum Mantri, Husn Bano, Leela Mehta, Sheela, Rohini Rai, Putlibai, Freni Shroff etc, but in spite of his sweet voice and good singing, he remained neglected by major composers. As a result he could not achieve much success in Hindi films.

This was compensated to a great extent by his Bhajan singing. He lost his father and had to return to Madhavpur. One Mr. Gijubhai was Assistant station Director of Rajkot Radio station. He invited Yashwant to sing bhajans on Rajkot radio. Soon his Bhajans became a rage and he became a very popular Prabhatiya singer. He mainly sang poems of Ganga Sati,Paan bhai and Narsi Mehta etc. He spent a long time singing bhajans. He was made an A class singer on Radio. His name was taken along with famous singers of Gujarat ,like Mohanlal Rayani, Kannubhai Barot, Dula Bhagat etc etc. Due to his good nature he got many friends here. One of them was Ratubhai Adani.

He also sang some songs in Gujarati films. Due to his hectic schedules, he neglected his health and contracted T.B. But he continued his work. when his condition became bad his friend Shri Ratubhai Adani admitted him to Keshod T.B.Hospital.

Yashwant Bhatt died of severe T.B. The news of his death on 27-10-1977 was a shock to his friends, relatives and Bhajan lovers of Gujarat.

His younger brother Harish Bhatt, who was an ardent fan of Saigal also tried to sing in Hindi films. I could trace only one of his songs in the film Kinara-1949. Yashwant Bhatt’s children also carried forward his singing legacy.

There were 9 songs in film Jagriti-49. One song is already discussed. There were all unknown singers like Omkar Devaskar, Lalita Rao, Sanjeevani Pai and Freni Shroff. only Yeshwant Bhatt was a known name. The song is better than average.

( I have used information from Music beyond boundaries by Ashok Ranade and Marathi Cinema in Retrospect by Sanjit Narwekar, MuVyz,HFGK and my own notes, for this write up.)

This article is meant to be posted in atulsongaday.me. If this article appears in other sites without the knowledge and consent of the web administrator of atulsongaday.me, then it is piracy of the copyright content of atulsongaday.me and is a punishable offence under the existing laws.

This article is written by Bharat Upadhyay, a fellow enthusiast of Hindi movie music and a contributor to this blog. This article is meant to be posted in atulsongaday.me. If this article appears in other sites without the knowledge and consent of the web administrator of atulsongaday.me, then it is piracy of the copyright content of atulsongaday.me and is a punishable offence under the existing laws.

There were six Lyricist viz, PL Santoshi, Nakhshab, A Shah Shikarpuri, Gulshan Jalalabadi and Raja Mehdi Ali Khan. Music was set by our Anna Saheb Chitalkar Ramchandra. There were nine songs, 4 Hemaji’s solos one duet of Hema-Rafi and 4 songs by Shamshad Begum. Six songs are already present in our Blog.

On the occasion of 37th remembrance anniversary of C Ramachandra, I have selected a pathos filled song of my liking which is a rare song with GOOD taste. The song is ‘mujh ko sazaayen deke kisi ke gunaah ki’ from Namoona 1949. The song is sung by Hema. The lyrics are penned by Raja Mehdi Ali Khan. The composition is melodious.

Editor note-Those who wonder who Hema Hardikar is, that is the original name of Lata Mangeshkar. 🙂

This article is written by Sadanand Kamath, a fellow enthusiast of Hindi movie music and a contributor to this blog.This article is meant to be posted in atulsongaday.me. If this article appears in other sites without the knowledge and consent of the web administrator of atulsongaday.me, then it is piracy of the copyright content of atulsongaday.me and is a punishable offence under the existing laws.

Blog Day :

3807

Post No. :

14802

Movie Count :

4048

I was not aware tat there was a film titled ‘Maya Dor’ (1949) until two days’ back. On a further scrutiny, I drew almost blank on the details of the film other than what was mentioned in HFGK. The film was produced under the banner of Ram Krishna Films Corporation, Calcutta. Names of actors, director and the genre of the film are not known.

According to HFGK, there were six songs in the film which were released on the gramophone records. Name of the lyricist for all the songs are unattributed. Fortunately, singers of all the songs as well as the name of the music director, Chitta Roy have been mentioned. The names of playback singers – Supriti Ghosh, Bechhu Dutta, Rama Devi, Kala Baran, Anima Dutta and Gauri Mitra are new to me. There was one solo song sung by Angurbala which interested me as I was aware of her name as a classical singers specialising in khayal, thumri, dadra, ghazal, naat and devotional songs.

None of the six songs listed in HFGK was available on video sharing platforms. Fortunately, I could outsource mp3 clips of two songs, one of which happened to be the song rendered by Angurbala. An interesting fact about about the singer and the music director of this song was that both Angurbala and music director, Chitta Roy were actively associated with Kazi Nazrul Islam.

Angurbala (real name, Prabhabati Banerjee) was born in the Indas village of Burdwan district (now in Bankura district), West Bengal in C.1896. Her father was an army officer. Angurbala received primary education in her village. Despite being good at study, she had to quit formal education and had to join the stage at an early age for reasons of poverty. Angurbala’s first guide in music was Amulya Majumder. Later, she took training from Ustad Jeet Prasad. She received training in Khayal and Thumri from Pandit Ram Prasad Mishra and Ustad Zamiruddin Khan.

She entered the stage as a child artist under the guidance of dramatist Nripendra Chandra Basu in dancing and singing roles. Her Dance Master was Lalit Mohan Goswami who gave her name ‘Angurbala’ for the stage. She carried on with the same name as a performing artist as well as a singer. In 1912, she entered into her professional career as a singer-actor in a Bengali drama staged by Cornwallis Theatre, Calcutta. Thereafter, she became a regular stage artist in several plays.

The Gramophone Company of India invited her to record songs. ‘Kaala Tor Tarey Kadamtolay Cheye Thaki’ and ‘Bandho Na Torikhani Amar E Nadikuley’ were her first two Bengali non-film songs to be released on records. Thereafter she became a regular with HMV, cutting innumerable discs.

In the year 1923, her first silent film ‘Indrasabha’ was released. Her first talkie was ‘Jamuna Puliney’ (Bengali, 1933) in which she played the role of Brindey. Indubala and Kamala Jharia were her co-stars in this film. Soon she made her presence felt in singing roles in Hindi films like ‘Radha Krishna’ (1933), ‘Char Darvesh’ (1933), ‘Naseeb Ka Chakkar’ (1936), ‘Maa Ki Mamta’ (1936), and some other films in many different Indian languages like Bengali, Urdu, Tamil and Telugu.

Angurbala was the first singer to sing from All India Radio, Calcutta on the very first day when broadcasting was started in 1927. Her immense popularity as a singing artist drew the attention of the Nizam of Hyderabad who specially invited her to sing in his court. In one of the discs during this period, her photo was printed on one side of a record with the photo of Hyderabad’s Nizam on the other. That was the extent she impressed the Nizam with her songs. Her stage performances continued at the same time and her songs were a source of major attraction for all those who queued up for tickets of the plays.

Angurbala’s association with Kazi Nazrul Islam broadened her music field and she recorded several songs of Nazrul gradually achieving the status of a major exponent of such songs. She was appointed as a music trainer of HMV by Kazi Nazrul Islam. She quit acting to concentrate on singing which was her first love.

Angurbala was popularly known as Sangeet Samragyee (Empress of the Music). Indubala was her close personal friend. A documentary film, titled ‘Teen Kanya’ featuring her along with two other artistes namely Indubala and Kamala Jharia was made in 1972. Apart from a Gold disc from HMV, she was awarded the prestigious Sangeet Natak Academy Award in 1983 and a honorary D.Litt from Kalyani University.

Even in advanced age, Angurbala participated in music functions and gave public performances. Sometime in 1982, she suffered a stroke that caused loss of her memory. After about 18 months, she breathed her last on January 7, 1984 leaving behind her foster son, Amal Banerjee, his wife and a treasure of her music.

I was familiar with the name, Chitta Roy, the music director who had composed a few Hindi non-filmy songs in the 1940s. He was one of the first to use Talat Mehmood for a non-filmy ghazal ‘Gham-e-Zindagi ka ya rab na mila koi kinara’ in early 1940s which was re-recorded in 1963.

Chitta (Chittaranjan) Roy was born on March 2, 1912 in Barisal (now in Bangla Desh). He passed B. Sc. (Physics) from Calcutta University with honours. But his interest was in the music. When he first went to HMV office in Calcutta in 1938 to record his maiden songs as a singer and composer, he was not allowed. Subsequently, on a request from Kazi Nazrul Islam, Chitta Roy was allowed to record his songs under the supervision of Kazi Nazrul Islam. These two songs were Bengali non-filmyl songs – ‘Ekla Ghare Dakbo Na.’ (1938) and ‘Ke jaane maa tobo maya’ (1938). With this gratitude, Chitta Roy got attached to Kazi Nazrul Islam and he became personal assistant to him.

With this association, Chitta Roy composed many Nazrul songs along with folks, modern and devotional songs. Kazi Nazrul Islam gave him a pseudonym name ‘Dilawar Hossain’ for his excellent rendition of Islamic songs. Throughout his life, Chitta Roy remained devoted to his mentor.

Chitta Roy was also associated with composing songs for a few Bengali films like ‘Nishir Dak’, ‘Krishna Kaberi,’ ‘Alibaba’ in the 1940s. He also recorded audios for Bengali plays like ‘Padmini’, ‘Chandrabati’, ‘Harishchandra’ etc. He was the visiting professor of music in Rabindra Bharti University and the Bengal Music College affiliated to the University of Calcutta.

During his last days, Chitta Roy suffered from hypertension but he did not give up his first love, the music. On the night of September 12, 1963, he suffered a heart attack. He was admitted to hospital where he breathed his last in the evening of September 13, 1963. He was 51.

The only Hindi film for which Chitta Roy composed songs was ‘Maya Dor’ (1949). I am presenting one of the rarest song ‘aayi jawaani aayi’ sung by Angurbala for the film. The lyricist is unattributed. This song has a typical Bengali music flavour close to the style of another stalwart, Kamal Dasgupta. Probably both were influenced by the music of Kazi Nazrul Islam.

With this song, ‘Maya Dor’ (1949), Angurbala and Chitta Roy make debut in the Blog.

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Acknowledgements: The information on Angurbala is mainly based on an article written by Dr. Jyoti Prakash Guha which appeared in the Journal of the Society of Indian Record Collectors, Mumbai – Annual TRN 2008. The information on Chitta Roy was based on a Blog ‘ Chitta Roy – A Name in the World of Music’. I could not locate the name of the author of the Blog but Shibani Basu, one of the daughters of Chitta Roy seems to be associated with the Blog as her name appears as one of the contacts for suggesting the improvement on the information on Chitta Roy.

This article is written by Arunkumar Deshmukh, a fellow enthusiast of Hindi movie music and a contributor to this blog.This article is meant to be posted in atulsongaday.me. If this article appears in other sites without the knowledge and consent of the web administrator of atulsongaday.me, then it is piracy of the copyright content of atulsongaday.me and is a punishable offence under the existing laws.

Blog Day :

3806

Post No. :

14801

Today’s song is a very very special song. It is from film Roomal-49. Four songs from this film are already discussed. Luckily, this song was yet to be discussed, as if waiting for me. It is a duet of Mohd. Rafi and Asha Bhosle. Written by Nazim Panipati, it is composed by Hansraj Behl. HFGK is silent on the MD’s name for all songs, though there were two of them- Hansraj Behl and Aziz Khan. However, there are other references to confirm that Behl was composer for this song, namely 1. The uploader has mentioned his name 2. Rafi’s Excel sheet mentions his name and 3. Behl’s name is mentioned for this song in book ‘ Rafinama’ by Isak Mujawar.

Now, coming to the point why this song is special.The reason is….this is the First ever duet of Rafi and Asha Bhosle. Rafi had started Playback recording from 1944 and Asha started from 1948. Within one year, Asha sang a duet with Rafi in film Roomal-49. Another film Lekh was also made in 1949 and they sang in that film too, but Roomal duet was the First one to be recorded.

Incidentally, Asha and Rafi had the maximum duets in HFM. They sang a total of 806 duets from 1949. Their last duet came on the screen in film Kala Coat-1993 ( 13 years after Rafi had left us.)-MD Iqbal Gill. Asha Bhosle and Rafi created 3 records during their journey together-
1. Maximum duets – 806
2. Maximum duets in one MD’s films – 92 duets in OPN’s films.
3. Rafi-Asha maximum duets in one film- Basant-60 – 11 duets
(Ed note-The blog has 514 Rafi-Asha Duets, including this song.)

Mohd. Rafi was the only singer who sang duets with the 3 major female actor singers of the 40s. He sang with Noorjehan (Jugnu-47), Khurshid ( Aage Badho-47) and Suraiya (Kajal-48 and in 11 more films).

Rafi sang only 1 duet with Meena Kapoor in film Aabroo-56. There is another song having voices of Meena, Rafi,Asha and Manna Dey in Tajmahal-63). This is understandable considering Anil da’s opinion about Rafi’s singing !

Film Roomal-49 was directed by Ramchandra Thakur. He was born on 17-12-1908 at Suver ( noe Umedgadh) in Sabarkantha Dist. Gujarat. From his 9th year onwards he was educated in Bombay. He completed his M.A. in Pali language, to become a Teacher but not so good results forced him to join Film industry. He had already written articles on films. He had also translated sound recordist Minoo Katrak’s book in Hindi and Gujarati.
He joined the Marketing department of Sagar Movietone. After Baburao Patel headed that department, he was shifted as asstt. director. He co directed film Gramophone Singer, along with Virendra Desai-the owner’s son-who later married Nalini jaywant despite he being already married.

Thakur’s first film as an independent director was ‘Civil Marriage’-40, in which Snehprabha Pradhan made her debut. He worked for Ranjit, Prakash and other banners. Her directed 20 films. His last film was Nawab Sirajuddoula-67. He mainly directed Mythologicals, social and comedy films.
He was a multifaceted person. He knew and could speak 11 languages. He wrote scripts for film Baiju Bawra-52 and several Gujarati films. He also directed 2 Gujarati films. He wrote 4 research based Novels. His article on Sagar Movietone has become a reference point for researchers.
Ramchandra Thakur died on 31-10-1992. (adapted from ‘ Sagar Movietone’-Biren kothari)

Jillobai (real name Zuleikha Ibrahim), born in 1905, in Bombay, was a Tawayef from Delhi. She started from stage dramas and then silent films. During this period, Master Nissar was attracted towards her, but being a shrewd woman, she spurned his advances, only after lot of money was spent on her by him. She acted in more than 100 Talkie films and also sang 3 songs in 3 films initially. Her first talkie film was India’s first Talkie film Aalam Ara-1931, in which she sang one song also. She acted in many popular films like Anarkali-35, Kissan Kanya-37, Pukar-39, Sikander-41, Taqdeer-43, Zeenat-45, Jugnu- 47, Mother India-57, Mughal-e-Azam-60 etc etc. Her last film seems to be Suhani Raat-74. (I thank Sudhir ji and Pramod Godbole ji for providing additional information) .

Nazim Panipati, who wrote the songs of film Roomal-49, along with Mulkraj Bhakri and Rupbani, was born in lahore in 1920. His real name was Muhammed Ismail Khan. He was the younger brother of Dirctor/Lyricist Wali sahab. Due to his hobby of writing shairi, he was introduced to Dalsukh Pancholi and Roop k. Shorey. He first wrote songs for Punjabi films. His first film as a Lyricist in Hindi was Zamindar-42. He shifted to Bombay and wrote 80+ songs in 25 films. His last film in India was Sheesham-52. Then he migrated to Pakistan. He wrote more than 120 songs for Pak Television and Punjabi/Urdu films. He died in Lahore on 18-6-1998.

Today’s song by Rafi, Asha and chorus looks to be a fun comedy song. Enjoy this song….

This article is written by Arunkumar Deshmukh, a fellow enthusiast of Hindi movie music and a contributor to this blog. This article is meant to be posted in atulsongaday.me. If this article appears in sites like lyricstrans.com and ibollywoodsongs.com etc then it is piracy of the copyright content of atulsongaday.me and is a punishable offence under the existing laws.

Blog Day :

3758

Post No. :

14727

Movie Count :

4024

Today’s song is quite a rare song. It is from film Khush Raho-49. This was a C grade stunt film, made by Sushil pictures, Bombay. Directed by Harbans,it had music by Shiv Dayal Batish. I say this is a rare song, for 2 reasons. One- in most cases, producers of stunt films were not interested in making commercial records of songs of their films. Reason – Usually, the composers of such low budget films were also unknown or less known composers. If at all, a well known composer was there, he rarely gave his best shot to stunt film, which attracted a fixed, low class audience. Second – Music or songs were not what attracted the audience of stunt films. So the songs rarely became well known and the records-if brought out at all-did not sell.

Therefore C grade film songs are usually a matter of interest to Collectors. These songs are not even uploaded on sites like U-Tube and that is why such film songs are difficult to be found. Only in extremely rare cases a song from a stunt film is famous and popular. off hand, I can remember one such song , ” Humen to loot liya mil ke husn walon ne” from film Al Hilaal-58. It became famous and had the honour of becoming the 5000 th song on this Blog, with write ups from Raja ji, Sudhir ji and Atul ji, on 13-11-2011. Of course, there could be some more famous songs from stunt films.

The cast of the film Khush Raho-49 was Bhagwan, Baburao (Pehalwan), Vasantrao (Pehalwan), Sarla, Leela Gupte, Ratan Piya and others. In the decade of 40s, the number One stunt film maker, director, producer and actor was undoubtedly Master Bhagwan. Till his first social film ” Albela ” -51 hit the screen and became an Iconic musical film, Bhagwan was into stunt films only.

Famous Film Historian and Author of Marathi, Hindi and English books on old films and artistes, Isak Mujawar ( 22-5-1934 to 26-2-2015 ) has written over 30 books. Mujawar, Master Bhagwan and C Ramchandra were good friends and Mujawar has written about them in his books. He has given first hand information gathered from them. Mujawar has written a book ” Ek Albela ” on Master Bhagwan. Many less known facts and anecdotes about Bhagwan, CR and other artistes are given in this book.

When Bhagwan was directing- and acting in- film Bahadur Kisan-37, he got introduced to CR or Ram Chitalkar,as he was known then.Soon they became thick friends. When Bhagwan got Tamil film ‘ Jaykodi’ to direct in Madras, he took Chitalkar as the Music Director. They did one more film ‘ Van Mohini’ together in Madras and returned to Bombay. Actually Bhagwan had received several offers to direct more films, including one from AVM also, but his brother Shankar Palav came to Madras and forced him to return to Bombay.

Harishchandrarao Kadam, who had floated his own production outfit Harishchandra Pictures, was waiting to offer a Hindi film,” Sukhi Jivan” for Bhagwan to direct. The offer was to act in and direct the film for Rs. 3000 pm salary plus 20% share in the profits of the film. However, the producer wanted to continue with his MD, Naidu for this film too. Naidu was once an assistant to Anil Biswas and Kadam had promissed Anil Biswas to give this film to Naidu. However, Bhagwan flatly refused and said,” only Chitalkar will be the MD or I wont do the film”. Now there was a problem, as both were adamant for their MD. Finally, Anil Biswas came to mediate. Bhagwan told him,” Chitalkar came to Madras with me on my calling and also returned to Bombay with me,though he too had more offers there. Now I can not leave him high and dry. It is with him or no film”

Anil Biswas told the producer, ” OK. you give this film to Chitalkar and next film to Naidu”. The problem was solved and Ram Chitalkar got his first Hindi film ‘ Sukhi Jivan’-42 as an independent MD. He began his career and rose to heights which we all know very well. Harishchandrarao kadam gave film ‘ Watan ki Pukar ‘-43 to Naidu. Like this many interesting anecdotes are described in the book ‘ Ek Albela ‘, about CR and Bhagwan. I intend to weave some stories in my forthcoming posts.

In the cast there is a very romantic name-Ratan Piya. He was born on 5-3-1904 at Lucknow. His father Pt. Madan Mohan was secretary to Motilal Nehru. His father was a theatre lover and so started his own Theatre company at Allahabad. Ratan, after his matriculation started working in it. He was trained to write songs for its dramas. Their company was patronised by the Viceroy, who paid Rs. 20 p.m. as his Patronage !

Ratan debuted as a Lyricist in film Pakke Badmash-1939. For this film, he even wrote an English song. His films as a Lyricist were Zaban-43, Mali-44, Umang-44 Nai Baat-47 and Batohi-48. For sustenance, he even acted in few films like, Shakuntala-43, Umang-44, Meena-44, Mahakavi Kalidas-44, Panna Dai-45, Khush Raho-49, Janam Patrika-49 and Begunah-49. After this Ratan Piya returned to Allahabad to look after their Theatre when his father died.

There were 3 Major Centres for Hindi Film Production in India in the early days. Calcutta,Lahore and Bombay.

From the period of Talkie films, all the 3 centres became very active and many films with lot of songs were produced.Initially,in the Talkie films,even the Dialogues were in poetry type,so it was difficult to demarcate Dialogues and songs separately.Films like Indrasabha-1932 had 71(or 69) songs.Similarly, films from that era had anything between 10-50 songs each.

In the Calcutta centre, film music had a distinct influence of Robindra Sangeet,In the Lahore films,it was Punjabi and folk tunes whereas in the western Bombay centre music was influenced by Marathi stage, Gujarati Dramas and Parsi Theatre. Out of this, Marathi stage music had a pronounced effect on films as many classical Drama artists joined Film industry.As such this music was well developed and its acceptability was taken for granted.

When more films and songs were made in Bombay,there was a need for more singers.The composers were constantly on the lookout for fresh singers.
Prabhat Film Company shifted from Kolhapur to Poona,but there were many connections still left in Kolhapur area.When Prabhat started making the film ” SANT SAKHU ” in 1941,the Music Director Keshav Rao Bhole needed new singers.His assistant that time was a young man from Kolhapur area,named VASANT DESAI. He was entrusted the task of getting new singers. Such Talent Hunters were in Calcutta and Lahore also.

There is a book “The Desai Trio and the movie industry in India” by shri Nilu Gavankar. He describes this episode thus-

Vasant Desai had lot of connections in Kolhapur and Konkan.He had learnt about 2 Desai Sisters of Kolhapur who were very good singers,but he did not know them.He went to Kolhapur and met Mrs.Susheelabai Gavankar,the author’s wife and his family friend.He inquired if she knew these girls.She said, “Yes.Their mother Sharadini Desai is my friend.” They both went to Desai house. Vasant Desai was introduced.There were 2 sisters VINODINI AND PRAMODINI. Vinodini was about 15 yr.old. Vasant Desai proposed that Vinodini sings for a Hindi film. There was a flat refusal as ” girls from good homes do not sing in films”. After a great convincing and a promise of personal protection, it was agreed.

Accordingly, VINODINI sang for her first Hindi film Sant Sakhu in 1941. Later she was given many opportunities to sing in Marathi films, Bhavgeets etc.In 2 years’ time Vinodini got married to Music Director PANDURANG DIKSHIT and became Vinodini Dikshit. She was actually more into classical singing and devoted time in that, so she sang only 15 songs in Hindi films like Sant Sakhu-41, Gwalan -46, Lakhon mein ek-47, Poojya Gandhi ji-48, Sati Narmada-50 and Bhagwan Shrikrishna-50. She gave stage shows for classical singing and was actively involved in Kalyan Gayan Vidyalaya near Bombay.

Her younger sister Pramodini followed suit and started singing in Hindi films, starting with Khush Raho-49. She sang in more films than her sister, 27 songs in 13 films. Her other films include Raaz-49, Dilruba-50 Shokhiyan-51, Kashmir-51, Nand Kishore-51, Sazaa-51 Char chand-53, Fariyadi-53, One two Three-53, Gunah-53, Naulakha Haar-53 and Pehli Tarikh-54 . Later she got married to Ashok Patkar and settled in Bombay as a Housewife.

Today’s song is sung by Promodini Desai and Balbir. There were 9 songs in the film and 6 of them were sung by her. 3 solos and 3 duets. There were also 2 solos of Balbir in it. Except for today’s song, I could not get any other song from this film. So let us enjoy this rare song. With this song film Khush Raho -49 makes its debut in the Blog.

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The movie had eleven songs in it. Three of these songs have been covered in the blog. All of them were discussed in 2011 !

Now, after seven years, here is the next song from “Narsimha Avtaar”(1949) to appear in the blog. The song is sung by Lalita DewoolkarLata. Pt Narendra Sharma is the lyricist. Music is composed by Vasant Desai.

I have not been able to get a few words right in the lyrics. I request our readers with keener ears to help fill in the blanks/ suggest corrections as applicable.

Only the audio of the song is available. I request our knowledgeable readers to throw light on the picturisation of the song.

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This movie had twelve songs that were sung by nine singers, penned by six lyricists and composed by two music directors.

Here is the first song from “Last Message”(1949) to appear in the blog. The song is sung by Sudha Malhotra and Uma Devi. Mahmood “Sarosh” is the lyricist. This song is credited to both the ,usic directors, namely Abid Hussain Khan & Sushant Banerjee.

This article is meant to be posted in atulsongaday.me. If this article appears in sites like lyricstrans.com and ibollywoodsongs.com etc then it is piracy of the copyright content of atulsongaday.me and is a punishable offence under the existing laws.

The movie had nine songs in it. Five songs from the movie have been covered in the past. Here is the fifth song from “Roshni”(1949) to appear in the blog.

This song is sung by Lalita Deulkar and chorus. P L Santoshi is the lyricist. Music is composed by C Ramchandra.

The song is a cute and interesting song where a desi lady wonders about the lifestyle of western people and dreams of copying them. 🙂 Her observation and conclusion about them is quite hilarious. She observes that these western people walk around with a “phaasi ka phanda” around their necks. 🙂 To her, a “mem” walks around holding a “chhatri” in her hard and she fantasises about doing the same, with her “beau” who would be suitably “westernised” as well, wearing a long hat. 🙂

Watching the video of the song would have been fun, but unfortunately the video is not available. Only the audio of this song is available. I request our knowledgeable readers to throw light on the picturisation of this song.

This article is meant to be posted in atulsongaday.me. If this article appears in sites like lyricstrans.com and ibollywoodsongs.com etc then it is piracy of the copyright content of atulsongaday.me and is a punishable offence under the existing laws.